tag:theconversation.com,2011:/us/topics/white-rhino-31231/articleswhite rhino – The Conversation2018-07-04T17:05:31Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/992492018-07-04T17:05:31Z2018-07-04T17:05:31ZHybrid embryos raise hope of resurrecting northern white rhino – but what's the point?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/226145/original/file-20180704-73303-2u42ze.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=496&amp;fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/northern-white-rhinoceros-ceratotherium-simum-cottoni-756740854?src=AeMQtqEEsatRgEYD3E5lQA-1-23">Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Scientists have for the first time <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-018-04959-2">created hybrid embryos</a> with DNA from the nearly-extinct northern white rhinoceros, an advance that could ultimately lead to the first resurrection of a mega-mammal. But while this scientific achievement could provide a new way to produce future generations of endangered or extinct animals, applying this approach to the white rhino <a href="https://www.savetherhino.org/thorny-issues/advanced-reproductive-technologies-and-priorities-for-rhino-conservation/">does not meet with universal approval</a> among conservationists.</p>
<p>The international team of researchers, led by Professor Thomas Hildebrandt from the Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research, have used an existing assisted reproduction technology developed for horses, and applied it to the white rhino. Eggs and sperm from northern white rhino are in short supply, due to the rarity of the subspecies. So the team also used material from southern white rhino, successfully fertilising southern eggs with sperm from both northern and southern subspecies, proving that the process works.</p>
<p>Only seven out of 314 fertilised eggs developed into embryos – a roughly 2% success rate – but the research demonstrated three important steps. First, that rhino eggs can be captured from live females. Second, that they can be fertilised using IVF and developed to the “blastocyst” early embryonic stage (ready for transfer to a surrogate female) – and that this can be done as a hybrid of southern and northern rhino. And third, that the resulting embryos can be frozen without damage.</p>
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<span class="caption">An anaesthetised female white rhino during oocyte collection.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Hildebrandt et al 2018</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
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<p>This process is technically very challenging. A special device was developed to enable the operators to extract oocytes (unfertilised eggs) from the ovaries of anaesthetised female southern white rhino from a number of European zoos. This is a three-person job requiring a steady hand that can guide a needle of just over 1 millimetre in diameter and almost 1 metre in length into the reproductive system via the rectum to capture the eggs.</p>
<p>The next step will be to transfer three of the embryos that have been frozen to the uterus of surrogate southern white rhino for gestation and birth. This final step toward the birth of a calf containing northern white rhino DNA is no small step, as artificial insemination in rhino has rarely been attempted. San Diego Zoo is currently evaluating six surrogacy candidates, and has already successfully <a href="http://zoonooz.sandiegozoo.org/2018/05/17/southern-white-rhino-at-san-diego-zoo-safari-park-pregnant-through-artificial-insemination/">artificially inseminated</a> one with southern white rhino sperm.</p>
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<span class="caption">Can the research lead to a self-sustaining wild rhino population?</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Jason Gilchrist</span></span>
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<p>The four other embryos produced were used to evaluate the potential for creating sperm and eggs from the genetic material of northern white rhino whose sex cells are not already available. While this only worked for southern white rhino embryos and not the hybrids, it did demonstrate the method could be successful.</p>
<p>As the first demonstration of this process working for rhino, the research is significant, impressive and exciting. It offers a possibility to rescue the genes of a subspecies that, following the death of the last male northern white rhino <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-43468066">earlier this year</a>, is now represented by just <a href="http://www.olpejetaconservancy.org/wildlife/rhinos/northern-white-rhinos">two elderly females</a>. And if the method works for the rhino, it should be possible to extend it to other endangered large mammals.</p>
<h2>Too late for resurrection</h2>
<p>The key question of whether scientists can produce pure northern white rhino embryos using this technique remains unanswered. But, even if it is possible, what would be the point? Ultimately, to be useful, these manipulative techniques need to increase the chance of survival of endangered (wild) animal populations. Otherwise, artificially engineered fertilisation and the management of genes has little value for nature conservation.</p>
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<span class="caption">Possible genetic relationship between northern (red) and southern (green) white rhino.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://genome.cshlp.org/content/early/2018/05/16/gr.227603.117">Tunstall et al 2018</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
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<p>To my mind, the time to save the northern white rhino <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-northern-white-rhino-should-not-be-brought-back-to-life-94153">has passed</a>. If we could not save it when it was here (the last wild northern white rhino is <a href="https://genome.cshlp.org/content/early/2018/05/16/gr.227603.117">thought to have disappeared</a> around 2006) it seems unlikely we could conserve a resurrected wild population now or in the foreseeable future. The purpose of simply preserving the subspecies’ genes in a new hybrid rhino (in captivity), and whether it would be worth all the effort, is unclear.</p>
<p><a href="https://genome.cshlp.org/content/early/2018/05/16/gr.227603.117">Recent research</a> by Dr Tate Tunstall of the San Diego Zoo Institute for Conservation Research and colleagues indicates that there may be enough genetic diversity in the frozen northern white rhino material (from only 12 individuals) to provide a suitably diverse founder population for resurrection. They also showed that the genetic differences between the northern and southern subspecies may be the result of evolutionary adaptations to different habitats.</p>
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<span class="caption">Historical distributions of the northern (red) and southern (green) white rhino.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://genome.cshlp.org/content/early/2018/05/16/gr.227603.117">Tunstall et al 2018</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
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<p>An alternative strategy to resurrection would be to secure a safe habitat in the former northern white rhino’s range of central East Africa, populate it with southern white rhino and let natural selection run its course. The introduced rhino population would be expected to evolve over generations to adapt to their new environment and fill the ecological role left vacant by the northern white rhino.</p>
<p>There are already southern white rhino currently living and breeding in <a href="http://www.rhinofund.org/">Uganda at the Ziwa Sanctuary</a>. Restoration ecologists have similarly <a href="https://www.cell.com/current-biology/fulltext/S0960-9822(11)00346-0">replaced extinct giant tortoises with related species</a> in a process called taxon substitution. Taxon substitution using the southern white rhino would be simpler and more cost-effective than manipulating genes and introducing manufactured hybrids, and would likely have a higher probability of success.</p>
<p>I am concerned that new technologies, such as the creation of these hybrid rhino embryos, are distracting us from on-the-ground conservation and dealing with the root causes of endangerment. There is a growing pervasive psychology that we need to preserve genes for some utopian future. The desperate logic of mixing subspecies and applying assisted reproduction technology is also being discussed <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2018/05/geneticists-its-time-to-mix-the-sumatran-rhino-subspecies/">regarding the Sumatran rhino</a>.</p>
<p>Saving bits of dead animal now to bring back species (or subspecies) in the future perpetuates the delusion that everything will be okay at some point. We need action now. <a href="https://theconversation.com/only-a-jurassic-park-style-intervention-can-now-save-the-northern-white-rhino-51333">Jurassic Park-esque scientific advances</a> will only work if we save habitats, stop pollution, constrain invasive species, reverse climate change and halt poaching. Otherwise, I fear that we will still be loading samples onto the frozen ark as the lights go off on an otherwise empty Planet Earth.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/99249/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jason Gilchrist does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Scientists have created embryos from the eggs of southern white rhino and sperm from their northern counterparts.Jason Gilchrist, Ecologist, Edinburgh Napier UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/941532018-04-05T14:59:14Z2018-04-05T14:59:14ZThe northern white rhino should not be brought back to life<p>A geriatric semi-captive rhino died in Kenya recently. “Sudan”, a 45-year-old <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-43468066">northern white rhino</a> was put to sleep as vets decided, after months of ill health, that his condition had deteriorated to the point where the levels of pain and quality of life were unacceptable.</p>
<p>From a conservation perspective, this does not sound like a big deal. Sudan was one old rhino. He was well past breeding age. So why did his death make headlines?</p>
<p>Sudan was the last surviving male northern white rhinoceros, a subspecies known to scientists as <em>Ceratotherium simum cottoni</em> that went extinct in the wild about 20 years ago thanks to poaching. He was captured and removed from the wild in 1975, the last wild-caught northern white rhino. Sudan’s daughter Najin, and granddaughter Fatu, are now the only two left, and they are both old and incapable of reproduction even if they had a mate.</p>
<p>It is a strange situation. On the one hand, it matters a lot. The northern white rhino is extinct, it just doesn’t know it yet. Conservationists refer to such populations as “<a href="https://conservationbytes.com/2008/08/30/classics-the-living-dead/">the living dead</a>”. </p>
<p>On the other hand, does it really matter? Despite persistent misreporting in the media (and some debate <a href="http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0009703">among scientists</a>) the northern white is generally recognised as “only” a subspecies of the white rhinoceros. It is survived by its relative the southern white rhino, <em>Ceratotherium simum simum</em>, around <a href="https://www.savetherhino.org/rhino_info/rhino_population_figures">20,000</a> of which remain. The species as a whole is not currently endangered.</p>
<h2>Resurrection?</h2>
<p>The importance of Sudan’s actual death remains unclear, partly because it seems increasingly possible to bring his subspecies back to life. The northern white rhino may be resurrected by <a href="https://theconversation.com/only-a-jurassic-park-style-intervention-can-now-save-the-northern-white-rhino-51333">Jurassic Park-style technology</a>. That would require conservationists to collect eggs from the remaining females and develop IVF techniques that are as yet unproven on rhino.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/213415/original/file-20180405-189830-yhvh2m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=1000&amp;fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/213415/original/file-20180405-189830-yhvh2m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;fit=clip"></a>
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<span class="caption">Hand rearing orphaned baby southern white rhino, South Africa.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Jason Gilchrist</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
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<p>DNA has been stored from 13 northern white rhino that died in recent years, including Sudan, and it would be combined with similarly-frozen eggs and sperm. The embryos produced would then be implanted within <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/zoo.21284">surrogate female southern white rhino</a>. I recently spoke to Professor <a href="http://www.izw-berlin.de/prof-dr-hildebrandt-thomas.html">Thomas Hildebrandt</a>, a global leader in conservation reproduction and pioneer of this technique, and he was <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/mar/23/scientists-store-of-rhino-semen-could-save-rare-species">confident it would work</a>.</p>
<p>If these <a href="https://www.nature.com/news/stem-cell-plan-aims-to-bring-rhino-back-from-brink-of-extinction-1.19849">optimistic plans</a> play out, the first northern white rhino calf born since the year 2000 could be produced before the death of the two remaining females. An alternative would be to produce a genetically-engineered baby rhino that is a hybrid of both northern and southern species. If plans to <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/mammoth-woolly-resurrection-dna-genome-elephant-embryo-extinct-animals-back-to-life-a7583826.html">resurrect the extinct woolly mammoth</a> via hybridisation with Indian elephants are possible, then a white rhino hybrid is not unachievable.</p>
<p>Nevertheless, we are talking not about saving a subspecies from extinction, but resurrecting an extinct subspecies – a much more challenging proposition.</p>
<h2>Southern white rhinos to the rescue</h2>
<p>The second issue, that clouds the importance of the almost certain extinction of the northern white rhino, is that the white rhino survives through its southern subspecies which may (with help) be able to replace the northern white rhino in its historical range across central Africa. In doing so, it could fill the vacant ecological niche.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/213416/original/file-20180405-189798-dnvi85.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=1000&amp;fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/213416/original/file-20180405-189798-dnvi85.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;fit=clip"></a>
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<span class="caption">Most southern white rhino are found in South Africa where they are under sustained pressure from poaching for their horn.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Jason Gilchrist</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
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<p>We, as a society, have to be pragmatic and economic with the resources available to protect wild animals. Can we justify spending an estimated <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-43468066">£7.1m (US$10m)</a> to try to bring back to life a subspecies from stored DNA with limited genetic diversity? Even if the animals were all alive and breeding, there would still be fears of the “<a href="https://evolution.berkeley.edu/evolibrary/news/160201_cheetahs">founder effect</a>” that can occur when a population is started from just a few individuals, with some traits lost and others dominant within the resulting population.</p>
<p>As a near-extinct subspecies, the conservation argument for continued investment to save the population is based upon whatever adaptive genetic diversity it holds that differentiates it from the other subspecies. But it is not clear exactly what genetically-useful traits are found in the sample of 13 northern white rhinos that are not also present in the southern white.</p>
<p>To be direct, if millions of pounds can be raised to try and resurrect the northern white rhino, should it not instead be invested in protecting the southern white rhino (still at <a href="https://theconversation.com/chopping-off-the-rhinos-horn-and-the-war-on-wildlife-crime-33427">risk from poaching</a>)? Or alternatively, direct the money towards even more vulnerable <a href="https://theconversation.com/africas-rhinos-hog-the-limelight-while-their-asian-cousins-head-for-extinction-47336">Asian rhinos</a>.</p>
<h2>Living museum exhibits</h2>
<p>It is easy to see why cutting edge reproductive technology is so <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/mar/20/sudan-northern-white-rhino-dead-species-endangered-species-conservationists">appealing</a> now that the planet’s sixth mass extinction crisis is well under way.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/213420/original/file-20180405-189795-ic5yxq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=1000&amp;fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/213420/original/file-20180405-189795-ic5yxq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;fit=clip"></a>
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<span class="caption">A greater one-horned rhino in a zoo. Only about 3,500 individuals remain in the wild in Asia.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Jason Gilchrist</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
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<p>But the only economic and practical long-term solution to biodiversity loss is to conserve wildlife in the wild and to prevent it from reaching the sorry state of the northern white rhino. After all, if humans cannot save a species in nature while it is alive, what future for animals that we manufacture? My worry is that they would simply be living museum exhibits, destined to live out their lives in zoos, with habitat loss or poaching preventing life in the wild. Where would this end? Do we want to repopulate the world with lab-produced engineered organisms? </p>
<p>It is difficult to be positive about our ability to manage these incredible animals to survival. We have already failed the northern white rhino, let us ensure that we do not let down the remaining rhinoceros species and all the other endangered animals out there that need our help.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/94153/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jason Gilchrist does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Rhino resurrection is tempting, but if humans cannot save a species in nature, what future for animals that we manufacture?Jason Gilchrist, Ecologist, Edinburgh Napier UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/827732017-08-21T19:05:20Z2017-08-21T19:05:20ZWhy allowing the sale of horn stockpiles is a setback for rhinos in the wild<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/182806/original/file-20170821-4952-k5p9cm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=496&amp;fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">South Africa lost over 1000 rhinos to poaching last year.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>A South African court has <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-08-21/rhino-horn-auction-by-world-s-biggest-breeder-to-go-ahead">ordered</a> the government to release a permit to the world’s <a href="https://www.iol.co.za/news/south-africa/kwazulu-natal/meet-the-worlds-largest-rhino-breeder-2064943">largest rhino breeder</a>, John Hume. The permit will allow him to host a 3-day auction of his stockpiled rhino horn to local buyers. </p>
<p>Hume is the world’s largest private rhino breeder. He owns 1500 rhino, just over a twentieth of the total number believed still to be <a href="https://www.timeslive.co.za/news/2017-06-24-exclusive-500kg-of-rhino-horn-up-for-grabs-as-south-african-rhino-hosts-first-ever-online-global-auction/">in the wild</a>. South Africa <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/apr/06/south-africa-lifts-ban-on-domestic-rhino-horn-sales">lost over 1000 rhinos</a> to poaching last year, predominantly in the Kruger Park and in KwaZulu-Natal. Hume says that the proceeds of the auction will go towards protecting his herd, which he says currently costs him <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/jun/26/rhino-breeder-auction-horns-south-africa-rhinoceros">USD$170,000 a month.</a></p>
<p>Hume had been granted a permit, but it was withdrawn by the country’s Department of Environmental Affairs. A South African <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/apr/06/south-africa-lifts-ban-on-domestic-rhino-horn-sales">Constitutional Court ruling in April</a> lifted a moratorium on the domestic rhino horn trade, upholding a previous High Court ruling. Hume then filed another court application to have his permit reinstated, which was upheld on Sunday. Such permits allow the buying and selling of rhino horn provided that the horns remain in the country after the sale.</p>
<p>Both the High Court ruling and the more recent Constitutional Court ruling are disappointing. While the moratorium was lifted on procedural grounds, the substantive case for a moratorium is profound. There is no evidence of a domestic market for rhino horn. In addition, a domestic trade contradicts the rationale of an international ban.</p>
<p>It therefore seems specious at best to argue for a domestic trade for conservation purposes. The only rationale for purchasing rhino horn in South Africa would be to sell it on to markets in China and Vietnam. The price of horn in those countries is estimated to be in <a href="https://theconversation.com/chopping-off-the-rhinos-horn-and-the-war-on-wildlife-crime-33427">the region of USD$60,000/kg.</a> </p>
<p>Hume has been banking on being able to sell his horn, or see the huge amount he invested in breeding be sunk for nought. He has fought hard to be allowed to sell horn from anaesthetised rhinos that <a href="https://theconversation.com/dehorning-rhinos-why-there-may-be-a-case-for-doing-it-64902">have been dehorned</a>.</p>
<p>He has won the court battle. But the rhino horn auction that has been permitted by the court is a serious setback in the fight against poaching and the probability of wild rhino survival. The chances of the horns remaining in the country is next to zero.</p>
<h2>The arguments for and against</h2>
<p>The case for selling off rhino horn is based on two arguments. </p>
<p>Firstly, that without private rhino ownership, the species would be even more imperilled. Private property, according to South Africa’s constitution, should allow one to buy and sell as one pleases. This view defines rhinos as a purely private, commercial good. </p>
<p>The second argument is that an international ban has been ineffective in combating rhino poaching. Therefore, the only way to overcome the negative effects of high prices, which induce poaching, is to flood the market with horn that is cut from a cultivated herd.</p>
<p>The first argument is philosophical and has severe practical implications. Rhinos are our collective heritage – a public good in one of the purest senses of that term. The joy derived from viewing rhinos in the wild – public parks – is indivisible. To reduce rhinos to purely commercial products is to destroy the argument for public parks and the public protection of wildlife. </p>
<p>Hume and his supporters would argue that this is a false dichotomy. But they have failed to make the case that flooding the market with horn from commercially bred rhinos will help to maintain the species in the wild. This is partly because of the flaw with the second argument.</p>
<p>The idea that commercially bred rhino horn will flood the market, depress prices and prevent further poaching is <a href="https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2015-04-13-op-ed-trading-blows-over-trading-rhino-horn/#.WZqGg617EUE">without basis in fact</a>. The international ban on rhino horn trade appeared to be most effective until a sudden shock hit the market – the escalation of demand from Vietnam <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-is-the-illicit-rhino-horn-trade-escalating-76265">in around 2006</a>. Before that, rhino poaching in South Africa was negligible. </p>
<p>It is disingenuous, at best, to argue that the ban against horn trading is responsible for the upsurge in poaching. There is also no evidence that the market can be satiated by attempting to flood it. The risk of exploding currently dormant demand is too high. It also seems that traders like Hume want it both ways – to sell the horn for a price that earns a handsome profit but not so high that it incentivises poaching. Where this equilibrium is cannot be ascertained. So, it’s hard to understand how the argument can be sustained.</p>
<p>A government whose general bureaucratic efficacy is questionable surely cannot be trusted to regulate rhino horn in the manner supposed by the court. If one considers, for instance, that South Africa’s State Security Minister, David Mahlobo, has been <a href="http://www.news24.com/Video/SouthAfrica/News/watch-rhino-horn-smuggler-calls-david-mahlobo-his-friend-20161116">implicated</a> in rhino horn smuggling, the odds are not promising.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/82773/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ross Harvey has written in his personal capacity</span></em></p>The rhino horn auction in South Africa is a serious setback in the fight against poaching and the survival of wild rhinos. The chances of the horns remaining in the country are next to zero.Ross Harvey, Senior Researcher in Natural Resource Governance (Africa), South African Institute of International AffairsLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/778062017-05-23T14:40:22Z2017-05-23T14:40:22ZWave of rhino killings points to shifting poaching patterns in South Africa<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/170363/original/file-20170522-7329-l1000b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=496&amp;fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">KwaZulu-Natal is home to smaller wildlife sanctuaries and private game reserves like Hluhluwe-iMfolozi where poaching has increased.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Keith Somerville</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Rhino poaching in South Africa continues to be a problem. In recent months poaching incidents have spiked in Hluhluwe-iMfolozi Park in the northeastern province of KwaZulu-Natal. In one of the worst attacks <a href="http://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/News/nine-rhinos-found-massacred-at-hluhluwe-imfolozi-park-20170513">nine rhinos</a> were found dead, bringing to 23 the number killed so far in just one month.</p>
<p><a href="http://talkinghumanities.blogs.sas.ac.uk/2017/03/21/has-the-tide-turned-for-south-africas-rhino-poaching-crisis/">Earlier this year</a> South Africa’s Minister of Environmental Affairs, <a href="https://www.environment.gov.za/aboutus/biographies">Edna Molewa</a>, announced triumphantly that in 2016 fewer rhinos had been poached than in 2015. Her statistics showed that nationally 121 fewer animals were poached in 2016 (1,054) compared with 2015 (1,175). </p>
<p>But my <a href="https://talkinghumanities.blogs.sas.ac.uk/2017/03/21/has-the-tide-turned-for-south-africas-rhino-poaching-crisis/">research</a> into the evolution of poaching operations in South Africa – which I shared round about the same time – showed that while fewer had been killed, poaching efforts had simply shifted locations. In particular, illegal killings in areas outside South Africa’s largest game reserve, the Kruger National Park, have been on the rise. </p>
<p>There are at most 5,458 black rhino, 21,085 white rhino, 3,500 Asian one-horned rhino, 100 Sumatran rhino and between 61 and 63 Javan rhino <a href="https://www.savetherhino.org/rhino_info/rhino_population_figures">left in the wild</a>. South Africa is home to 75% of Africa’s rhino with between 19,000 and 20,000 white rhino and about <a href="https://www.savetherhino.org/rhino_info/thorny_issues/poaching_crisis_in_south_africa">2,000 black rhino</a>.</p>
<h2>Successes in Kruger increase jeopardy elsewhere</h2>
<p>Protection in the Kruger National Park has increased through the establishment of an <a href="https://talkinghumanities.blogs.sas.ac.uk/2017/03/21/has-the-tide-turned-for-south-africas-rhino-poaching-crisis/">“intensive protection zone”</a> in the centre and south of the 19,485 km² park. This has reduced the number of killings.</p>
<p>But, to some extent, the poaching epidemic has simply changed focus and location. KwaZulu-Natal is home to smaller wildlife sanctuaries and reserves as well as private game reserves. All have substantial numbers of rhino which is why they have become the focus for poachers and criminal syndicates that run the illegal trade.</p>
<p>Zimbabwe and Namibia have been hit too. There are even fears that Botswana could be next on the <a href="http://www.mmegi.bw/index.php?aid=67506&amp;dir=2017/march/17">hit list</a>. </p>
<p>Rhinos under threat in South Africa have been relocated to the country’s well-protected national parks and private reserves. Botswana lost most of its rhinos to poachers in the 1970s and 1980s. But the success of the wildlife department and the Botswana Defence Force in combating poaching meant that it became a safe haven. In December 2014, Botswana had <a href="https://conservationaction.co.za/media-articles/botswana-budget-cuts-imperil-anti-poaching/">154 rhinos</a> and 25 more were translocated in 2015 and 2016.</p>
<p>In March this year, another 12 were sent from South Africa to the Okavango Delta, with 88 more due to follow this year and possibly another 100 sometime in the future. </p>
<p>But now their security is threatened. Budget cuts have forced Botswana’s Department of Wildlife and National Parks to cut funding for rhino protection. This has affected the elite Rhino Squad, set up to protect the relocated rhinos. It has even run out of money to buy <a href="http://www.mmegi.bw/index.php?aid=67506&amp;dir=2017/march/17">fuel for its vehicles</a>.</p>
<p>Botswana’s Environment Minister Tshekedi Khama II has bemoaned the <a href="https://conservationaction.co.za/media-articles/botswana-budget-cuts-imperil-anti-poaching/">lack of resources</a> and the poor response from donors: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>If you have given us money to establish the Rhino Squad, it will come with operational costs. We are always at war with poachers and we try to do as much as we can, with little.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The lack of funding could seriously imperil the relocation programme, which is reliant on security and well-resourced anti-poaching. </p>
<p>There has already been a surge in <a href="https://talkinghumanities.blogs.sas.ac.uk/2016/10/06/botswanas-elephants-and-conservation-are-things-starting-to-fall-apart/">elephant poaching in northern Botswana.</a>. Elephant poachers would see rhino horn – worth over $60,000 per kg compared with $1,000-$1,200 for ivory – as even more lucrative contraband than tusks.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/170367/original/file-20170522-7327-zu7br8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=1000&amp;fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/170367/original/file-20170522-7327-zu7br8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;fit=clip"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Rhino horn – from a dehorned rhino in South Africa.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Keith Somerville</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>KwaZulu-Natal bears the brunt</h2>
<p>If Botswana could be a target, Namibia and Zimbabwe have already felt the effects of the shifting poaching operations. The numbers <a href="http://www.global-geneva.com/is-a-legal-trade-the-only-way-to-save-africas-remaining-rhinos/">killed in Namibia</a> have risen in recent years, reaching 80 in 2015 having been down at 25 the year before. Zimbabwe lost 50 rhinos in 2015, double the previous year’s level. Figures for 2016 have not been released. </p>
<p>But it is South Africa’s KwaZulu-Natal province that is now bearing the brunt of renewed rhino poaching. Ezemvelo’s official 2017 statistics show that 89 rhino have been poached in KZN province so far this year, compared with 55 rhino this time last year. This is a rise of 48%, attributed to Mpumalanga poaching syndicates who were operating in the Kruger National Park targeting Zululand reserves because of increased security and anti-poaching in their own province.</p>
<p><a href="http://talkinghumanities.blogs.sas.ac.uk/2016/09/29/south-africas-rhino-poaching-problem/">My visit</a> to Hluhluwe-iMfolozi Reserve in September last year confirmed that 95 rhinos had been poached in the first nine months of the year. The <a href="http://www.kznwildlife.com/ezemvelo/poached-rhino-statistics.html">latest statistics</a> for 2016 showed 140 killed across the province (133 in protected parks) between January and November 2016. But with 89 poached across KZN in the first four months and killings up by 48%, the province could be looking at well over 200 dead in 2017 if the trend continues. </p>
<p>Cedric Coetzee, head of rhino protection in the park, believes that while it might take poachers days to track a rhino in Kruger National Park, the high density of animals in the KwaZulu-Natal reserve meant they might only spend two to three hours there before killing a rhino and escaping with its horns. </p>
<p>One thing that remains to be seen and analysed in detail is the effect that the unbanning of domestic trade in rhino horn in South Africa will have. In April this year South Africa’s Constitutional Court refused an attempt by the government to overturn an earlier court suspension of the government moratorium of the legal trade in horn imposed in 2009. </p>
<p>The Environment Minister has put out draft regulations for a legal trade. This would control domestic commerce and allow the export for personal use (not commercial exports which are banned by CITES) of a maximum of two horns. The draft is vague. But it was welcomed by the <a href="http://www.kznwildlife.com/ezemvelo/poached-rhino-statistics.html">Private Rhino Owners Association</a> in South Africa, who want a legal trade. <a href="http://www.bornfree.org.uk/campaigns/wildlife-trade/rhino-poaching/">Conservation organisations</a> which oppose any trade in wildlife products were highly critical of the court decision and the South African government’s draft legislation for a legal trade. </p>
<p>The outlook for southern Africa’s rhinos remains threatening. The trade issue is confused and the South African government under President Jacob Zuma hardly <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-ancs-path-to-corruption-was-set-in-south-africas-1994-transition-64774">has a reputation</a> for administrative competence, integrity and far-sightedness. </p>
<p>The police and wildlife authorities struggle to deal with poaching and smuggling. The ability of criminal syndicates to evolve their operations to take account of improvements in security in some areas suggests a shifting and complex war between anti-poaching units and the poachers, weighted in favour of the killers and smugglers.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/77806/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Keith Somerville does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>South Africa's KwaZulu-Natal province is bearing the brunt of renewed rhino poaching efforts. This is a result of increased security and anti-poaching in the Kruger National Park.Keith Somerville, Visiting Professor, University of KentLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/665102016-10-05T19:24:29Z2016-10-05T19:24:29ZThe ban on rhino horn sales leaves open the question of conservation funding<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/140323/original/image-20161004-30459-hmcg5q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=496&amp;fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Swaziland is home to 73 white rhino.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p><a href="http://commonwealth-opinion.blogs.sas.ac.uk/2016/swaziland-thinking-the-unthinkable-to-save-rhinos-by-legalising-trade-in-horn/">Swaziland’s proposal</a> to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) to be able to trade in rhino horn has been decisively defeated. Member states at Cop17 <a href="http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2016/10/wildlife-watch-vote-rhino-horn-sales-illegal/">overwhelmingly</a> rejected the mountain kingdom’s request to be allowed to sell its stocks of rhino horn and small annual quantities of horn from natural morality.</p>
<p>Swaziland, which is home to 73 white rhino and an estimated <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/apr/28/swaziland-unveils-plan-to-legalise-rhino-horn-to-pay-for-anti-poaching-efforts">18 black rhino</a>, wanted to use funds from the sale to increase conservation measures and provide incentives for local people to give their support to the efforts. Its <a href="https://cites.org/sites/default/files/eng/cop/17/prop/SW_Rhino.pdf">official bid</a> to CITES said that:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Proceeds from the sale of stocks would have raised approximately $9.9 million at a wholesale price of $30,000 per kg. That would have been placed in an endowment fund to yield approximately $600,000 annually.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>South African private rhino owners also want a legal trade and are currently fighting their own government <a href="http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2016/05/160523-rhino-horn-ban-south-africa-cites-smuggling-john-hume-rhino-ranching-swaziland/">in the courts</a> to get a moratorium on domestic trade in horn lifted. </p>
<p>Western conservation and animal welfare NGOs such as the <a href="http://www.ifaw.org/international/news/cites-parties-reject-swaziland-request-trade-white-rhino-horn">International Fund for Animal Welfare</a> were jubilant about the result. </p>
<p>In my view the outcome presents two challenges. The first is that it remains unclear how the fight against poaching and rhino conservation can be financed sustainably without a legal trade. The second is that the ban on all trade has been in place for 39 years and has not led to an improvement in protection. Demand for rhino horn has continued to <a href="https://www.savetherhino.org/rhino_info/thorny_issues/poaching_crisis_in_south_africa">rise</a> and <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/oct/16/rhino-horn-demand-in-vietnam-drops-by-more-than-33-in-one-year">prices</a> have gone up. These have served to encourage poach. New methods are needed but there is little sign of any being developed.</p>
<h2>Who pays</h2>
<p>One of the arguments in favour of loosening the ban is that the proceeds could be directed to communities. Without this they could become increasingly alienated which in turn would increase the likelihood that they will help poachers. </p>
<p>In addition, everyone agrees that conservation efforts need to be stepped up, and better surveillance introduced. But as Tom Milliken of the international trade monitoring group TRAFFIC <a href="http://www.startribune.com/swaziland-s-bid-to-sell-rhino-horn-fails-at-un-meeting/395649761/">asked,</a> after the vote: who will pay for it?</p>
<p>In my view NGOs wield disproportionate influence in the debate. They are a major source of funds for conservation and can use funding - or the denial of it - to persuade countries to adopt anti-trade policies. The effect of this is that states like Swaziland, Namibia, Zimbabwe and South Africa, which have the majority of the world’s rhino and are struggling against a severe poaching epidemic that <a href="https://www.savetherhino.org/rhino_info/poaching_statistics">kills around 1250 rhinos</a> across the continent every year, are left to pick up the bill.</p>
<h2>What next</h2>
<p>The CITES vote against legal trade comes at a time of optimism that the rate of <a href="https://theconversation.com/rhino-poaching-in-south-africa-are-numbers-falling-or-focus-shifting-65358">poaching is being reduced.</a>. Before the CITES meeting 702 rhinos had been killed in South Africa as a whole this year, compared with 796 in the same period <a href="http://www.sanews.gov.za/south-africa/minister-releases-rhino-poaching-figures">last year</a>.</p>
<p>But this may be a brief respite. There is growing evidence that poaching has not been halted but diverted from South Africa’s Kruger National Park, where poaching numbers are down, to other areas, <a href="http://www.iol.co.za/news/south-africa/kwazulu-natal/six-kzn-rhino-killed-on-rhino-day-2072033">particularly the Hluhluwe-iMfolozi park in Kwa-Zulu Natal</a>.</p>
<p>What is clear is that the illegal trade in rhino horn, which <a href="http://www.earthtouchnews.com/environmental-crime/illegal-trade/top-10-shocking-figures-of-the-illegal-rhino-horn-trade">fetches $65,000</a> a kilo in Vietnam and China, persists.</p>
<p>Poor rural dwellers, former professional hunters, corrupt ex-staff of wildlife parks and even some current wildlife personnel are part of a complex mix of people who work with criminal syndicates to poach rhinos and smuggle their horn. Anti-poaching patrols can kill or catch poachers but have had little success in smashing the syndicates.</p>
<p>A more realistic mix of approaches is needed. To me the only answer in the long run would be to bite the bullet by adopting regulated trade that brings in funds to make conservation self-sustainable. </p>
<p>The rejection of the Swazi bid will not end attempts to find solutions involving the reintroduction of legal and regulated trade, despite the emotively-expressed opposition of wildlife NGOs.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/66510/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Keith Somerville received funding from the Comanis Foundation to undertake a research trip to South Africa and Swaziland to look into the issues surrounding the rhino horn trade proposals.
</span></em></p>Swaziland hoped to be allowed to legally trade rhino horns but the idea was rejected by vote at the CITES conference.Keith Somerville, Visiting Professor, University of KentLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/653582016-09-15T22:26:16Z2016-09-15T22:26:16ZRhino poaching in South Africa: are numbers falling or focus shifting?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/137645/original/image-20160913-4980-1ul6imq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=496&amp;fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Rhino poaching in South Africa&#39;s Kruger National Park has decreased this year but it has increased in other regions.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>South Africa recently triumphantly <a href="http://www.sanews.gov.za/south-africa/minister-releases-rhino-poaching-figures">announced</a> that rhino poaching is on the decline in the Kruger National Park. South Africa’s Minister of Environmental Affairs, Edna Molewa, said 702 rhinos had been killed in the country as a whole so far this year, compared with 796 in the same period last year. </p>
<p>She also announced that between January and August this year a total of <a href="http://www.sanews.gov.za/south-africa/minister-releases-rhino-poaching-figures">458 poached rhino</a> carcasses were found in Kruger compared to 557 in the same period last year. This represents a 17.8% decline. The park is the hardest <a href="http://www.krugerpark.co.za/krugerpark-times-6-1-shoking-rise-in-rhino-poaching-25183.html">hit by poaching</a> and the numbers look like good news for rhinos and conservation.</p>
<p>But is there really a downward trend? Or is it just a re-orientation by poachers in the face of stepped-up security in the Kruger Park and the reflection of the steady decline in South African rhino numbers <a href="https://www.savetherhino.org/rhino_info/thorny_issues/poaching_crisis_in_south_africa">due to poaching</a>?</p>
<h2>Poaches adopt new strategies</h2>
<p>Chief Ranger Funda, who heads the protection teams at the Kruger National Park, told me that despite the falling carcass numbers, the number of incursions by poachers had increased by a worrying 27.87%. That is a staggering 2,115 for the first eight months of 2016. He told me that about half the poachers who entered the park were caught by rangers.</p>
<p>So far this year <a href="http://www.timeslive.co.za/politics/2016/09/11/Significant-increase-in-number-of-arrests-for-rhino-poaching-Molewa">414 suspected poachers</a> have been arrested. Around 177 of these were in Kruger and 237 in the rest of the country. The figures don’t tally, unless Funda’s estimate includes a significant number of the poachers caught and released without charge or perhaps killed in contacts with the rangers. </p>
<p>The number of incursions suggest there has been no let up in poaching. It may be that poachers are finding rhino harder to find. Kruger’s chief ranger said that the park had deployed very high security in an intensive protection zone. This zone, in the southern third of the park and along the border with Mozambique, is a regular route for poachers entering the park.</p>
<p>He added that poachers were now often entering the park posing as tourists rather than sneaking across the unfenced border with Mozambique. Poachers were also increasingly armed with high-powered Czech hunting rifles with sound moderators. These, he believed, had been brought into South Africa from Mozambique, where they had been supplied to wildlife officials but then illegally sold on to poachers.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/137643/original/image-20160913-4980-ipxylz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=1000&amp;fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/137643/original/image-20160913-4980-ipxylz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;fit=clip"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">This single piece of rhino horn, from a non-lethally dehorned rhino, is worth about $40,000.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Keith Somerville</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Problem shifts elsewhere</h2>
<p>Molewa did briefly note that although poaching had declined in Kruger it had increased in other areas. The number of carcasses found has increased in Hluhluwe-iMfolozi Reserve in Kwa-Zulu Natal. The director of the reserve, Jabulani Ngubane, told me that 95 rhino had been poached in the reserve since the beginning of the year, a big increase on last year. The reserve has about 4,500 white rhino and 500 black rhinos. </p>
<p>Cedric Coetzee, the head of rhino protection for Hluhluwe-iMfolozi, told me that he feared that poachers could shift to his reserve. One reason for this was the success of security measures at Kruger. The other was that the high density of animals in his reserve – about three rhino to a square kilometre – meant that a killing could take only two to three hours. </p>
<h2>What does the future hold?</h2>
<p>If you add the new figures released by the minister the number of rhino killed <a href="https://www.savetherhino.org/rhino_info/thorny_issues/poaching_crisis_in_south_africa">for their horns</a> in South Africa since 2006 stands at 5,763. The number is undoubtedly higher given that rhino would certainly have been killed but carcasses never found. </p>
<p>The Kruger park record looks better, in spite of a noticeable increase in elephant poaching. But Hluhluwe-iMfolozi is now under threat. With rhino horn fetching around $60,000 per kg in the booming markets <a href="http://www.earthtouchnews.com/environmental-crime/illegal-trade/top-10-shocking-figures-of-the-illegal-rhino-horn-trade">in Vietnam and China</a>, the temptation to poach is great. Rhino horn is a lucrative alternative for poor people struggling to feed, clothe and educate their families, as it is for greedy white professional hunters, former parks officials and even qualified veterinarians.</p>
<p>Security is being stepped up, but park officials admit the use of intelligence is disorganised. And many of the army and police units sent to supplement park rangers had no experience of working in thick bush full of potentially dangerous animals. </p>
<p>One option is some form of regulated trade from <a href="https://theconversation.com/dehorning-rhinos-why-there-may-be-a-case-for-doing-it-64902">dehorning</a> sedated rhinos, natural mortality and horn seized from poachers. But it is contentious and conservationists are divided on the [issue]( (https://africajournalismtheworld.com/2016/09/11/rhino-horn-and-conservation-to-trade-or-not-to-trade-that-is-the-question/). </p>
<p>One must hope that the downward trend in poaching continues. All one can say is that there are improvements in Kruger National Park but the war is not won. For sure, there are more battles to be fought.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/65358/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Keith Somerville received funding from the Comanis Foundation for his research trip to South Africa and Swaziland. </span></em></p>Initiatives to curb rhino poaching in the Kruger National Park has shown improvement compared to last year. But poaching in other parks has increased.Keith Somerville, Visiting Professor, University of KentLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.